i wanted just go back to the fiscal cliff just for a second. that is, the republican messaging, if you will. they have an opportunity here, it seems to me, as well as a problem, but i don't hear creative, imaginative, if you will, rhetoric or language or positioning or messaging. >> we have been for about three years now. so i think there's no reason for it to start now. what house republicans have to understand is they are the republican party for the next four years and have to have messaging and basically tell the american public what they're doing and why they're doing it. they can't be for tax cuts, for spending cuts. they have to articulate how it fits in the big picture. there are some skilled people that need to step forward. lou: would i be too cynical to say that perhaps the president has an additional advantage in this little carrousel of nonsense around the fiscal clef in that it also deflects and distracts from that half trillion dollars in new taxes that will be hitting the middle class in this country as a result of obamacare beg